Lackluster Bronze
by WrekkHavoc789
Summary: After getting Bronze in the Grand Prix, Mila Babicheva realizes there's an emptiness within that cases her to lose all her ambition. Hoping to reignite her inspiration, Viktor and Yuuri invite her to Hasetsu for the summer. Can her vacation in Japan revitalize her ambition to win gold, as it did for her friends? Or will she quit skating forever?


**Lackluster Bronze**

 **Yuri on Ice was phenomenal, I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. It's depiction of a realistic couple like Viktor and Yuuri was interesting, and I felt surprisingly close to the characters, they were so relatable. However, I felt that some of the women in the show were underrated, especially Mila Babicheva, so I decided to write a fanfic about her, just to expand on her character. Since I'm not a big ice skating fan (I can barely skate at all), so the written choreography in this story meant be off, since I have relatively no idea what the difficulty of the jumps actually are, but I'll try my best.**

 **BTW I disclaim.**

"Mila, you're up next, be ready." Yakov said, his gruff voice seemed unusually chipper, probably since Yuri had won the Men's Single Free Skate Final, yesterday and therefore the Men's Single Grand Prix. It say Yakov was proud would be an understatement, coaching such a young talented skater, made the old man happy.

"Yeah, yeah…old geezer, I'm going. Keep your pants on." She joked as she waved her coach off affectionately.

Mila Babicheva stood up, unzipped her Team Russia sweatshirt and pulled off the guards from her skate. Despite being only eighteen years old, she was one of the top ranked female skaters in the world; she placed third in the Women's Short Program two days ago, and she was currently waiting for her turn in the Free Skate. She brushed her fingers through curly red hair and ran her hands over her indigo coloured dress; the shimmering black lace flickered against the lights. She hobbled over to the edge of the rink and hung on to the railing.

The previous skater had just gotten off the ice, giving Mila the opportunity to glide on to it, she spun around to face Yakov. She often blocked out the announcer, she didn't need get herself all worked up with the rankings, she skated for fun and her friends. She just wanted to see how far she could go with that philosophy.

Yakov caught her attention, "Okay, so you're in a good position, right now. You'll almost certainly get on the podium tonight, but if you want gold, you're going to have to save four quads for the second half of the program. You'll do well, but no slacking off or day dreaming! Now good luck!"

Mila smirked, that was as warm of a sendoff as one could expect from Yakov, but she was used to his mannerisms after being coached by him for over six years.

She leaned over and kissed his wrinkly cheek, "Thanks geezer, I'll try my best." The old man blushed and stuttered unintelligently.

"I-I swear you are as bad as Viktor!" He snapped and then she chuckled.

She leaned back and looked out into the crowd, she was surprised to see Yurio (Yuri) sitting in the stands behind the rink, leaning back on his chair, his gold medal hanging around his neck. His feet were propped up on the back of Yuuri Katsuki chair, shoving his sneakers in the Japanese skater's face. Next to him was Otabek, who looked as stoic as ever. Sara, her brother Emilo (sigh, don't ask) and Georgi were all there too; Sara had already finished her program and was currently in fifth place. Seated next to Yuuri was Viktor, who had a beer in his hand (God only knows where he got it from) and was trying to get Yuuri, his fiancée, to drink from the cup. A smile formed on Mila's face, it was great to have her friends there supporting her.

Yurio stopped snapping at Yuuri and caught her gaze from across the rink. Despite Yurio being three year younger and having quite a temper, the two of them had a great friendship and an understanding. A trust that had been built up over the years.

He cupped his hands and shouted, "Oi Baba! Good luck, Hag!"

Mila resisted the urge to flip him off on international television, he really was a little turd, giving her an old lady nickname. In retaliation, she grinned widely, cupped her hands on top of her head like cat ears, and flicked her left leg up.

"Nyaah! Thanks, Kitten!"

Impressively it took the combined effort of three grown ass men (Otabek, Yuuri and Viktor) to hold the teenager in his seat, to stop him from jumping onto the ice. Mila laughed her ass off before skating to the centre of the rink when the bell chimed for her to get in position.

" _Next up, skating for Russia is Mila Babicheva. After the short program, she is currently ranked third; she will need to perform three quads to keep up this standing. Or four quads to qualify higher. Her music is Liz Callaway's Once Upon a December…and her theme is dreams."_ The announcer mediated.

Lots of Russian skaters had skated to this song in the past, but Mila had always loved the movie Anastasia ever since she was a little girl. She used to sing along with it as she watched the movie with her parents, when they were all a happy family, before the divorce. Mila needed to make this song hers.

As the music began, she started her step sequence.

 _Dancing bears,  
Painted wings,  
Things I almost remember._

She glided across the ice easily, months of practicing the choreography for this program made it feel natural to move through the foot work. Mila smiled as she lifted her head to gaze out at the crowd.

 _And a song someone sings,  
Once upon a December._

She made her first jump during the last sentence. A triple Axel, toe loop combination. As she landed she stuck her leg out in a spin sequence, before she continued the step sequence she winked at the crowd. The audience roared in approval. Mila felt confident entering the second half of the program.

 _Someone holds me safe and warm,  
Horses prance through a silver storm,  
Figures dancing gracefully across my memory_

She held herself tightly, like she was hugging herself as she did another jump sequence, a triple Lutz and a quad flip, Viktor's signature move. As she moved across the ice, spreading her arms out in an eagle prose, she caught glimpses of her friends. Sara was cheering her heart out and Yurio had calmed down. Georgi was all but making out with his phone, no doubt talking to his new girlfriend. She saw Viktor give a thumb up like he always did whenever he saw her skate, a little tradition they had from being rink mates. She gave him a personal wink before jumping again, this time it was quadruple toe loop, double Sal chow.

 _Someone holds me safe and warm,  
Horses prance through a silver storm,  
Figures dancing gracefully across my memory._

Her step sequence intimated the waltz that was seen in the movie with her arms held out in front of her like she was dancing with a partner. This time it was a quad loop, flip combo.

 _Far away,  
Long ago,  
Glowing dim as an ember,  
Things my heart used to know,  
Things it yearns to remember And a song someone sings_

She decided to finish big with her final jump combo to be a triple axel with another toe loop combination. Mila felt the fatigue of her performance weight on her, but she was able to land the jump, the crowd roared again.

 _Once upon a December_

She finished her performance in Anastasia's pose, her leg extended outwards with her arms spread. The crowd exploded.

" _A beautiful and masterful performance from Miss Babicheva! It's obvious that she's ending up on the podium tonight!"_

It was a blur getting off the ice, Mila barely remembered Yakov dragging her to the "kiss and cry", forcing her to sit down and handing her a water bottle. Mila chugged the water as she stared down at her feet. Waiting for the results was always the hardest, she wondered if she would make it onto the podium. There were still the American and Chinese skaters to both ranked higher than her.

" _Mila Babicheva's final score is 305.53 and currently ranks her in first place."_ Mila smiled at the camera and blew a kiss, before hugging Yakov, it was a new personal best.

It didn't stay that way. She did end up on the podium, only in the third place…again.

After the medal ceremony and being congratulated by everyone, she even took a selfie with Yuuri and Yurio, with their gold, silver and bronze medals, Mila found herself sitting alone in the hallway staring at her medal. She wasn't exactly disappointed in bronze, in fact she was very proud that she made it on to the podium, she's not as aggressive as Yurio when it came to winning…it just felt a little hallow…She loved skating, loved her friends…she cared about everyone so much…but it just felt like she skating half-assed lately.

She supposed she could blame it on her break up with Chaz, the hockey player, he got extremely jealous and didn't like her hanging out with her male rink mates. Mila was never one to put up with that sort of shit, so she ended things quickly with him and made it her personal duty to make sure Yurio didn't explode from his bouts of hormonal pubescent rage…Or maybe it was helping Sara deal with her issues with her brother; incest was always a tricky subject.

She wished she could blame it on some external crisis…but the fact was she just felt so lackluster…

She felt a warm hand pat her on the head and she glanced up to see Viktor standing over her with a soft expression on his face.

"Don't cry Mila, dear. You're always so full of smiles, it would be a shame to see that pretty smile of yours falter." He murmured softly in their native Russian.

Shocked, Mila hadn't realized she was crying until she touched her cheek, feeling the wetness of tears leaking down her face. Viktor's words and mannerisms mirrored the night they had originally met four years ago, when he had caught her crying in the hallway, the last time she had cried in years.

 _It was the World Junior Championship and she had been topped ranked that year and was excited to make her final year in the Junior's division the greatest one yet. Of course, that had to be the year, her parents told her they were getting a divorce. Now she knew her had been drifting apart for ages, they were always away at work and when they were home together, all they did was fight, it was no surprise that they announced their intentions to her. However, their divorce court appearance landed on the same weekend as the Championship's so neither of them could make it._

 _Despite not having her parents there, Mila was still determined to win gold, her ambition was driven by her need to make her parents proud, that their daughter still loved them…and maybe they could still love each other. She skated her heart out and did end up winning gold that year…but her parents never showed up, their selfishness was worlds away, in a courtroom, fighting over the scrapes of their ruined marriage._

 _That's how Viktor found, slumped against a wall, holding her gold medal crying her eyes out. Ready to give up on skating. He just patted her head on the head and said:_

 _"Don't cry, Mila. You have such a pretty smile, it would be such a shame to see it falter."_

 _Now being a fourteen year old girl and having a skating legend like Viktor Nikiforov comfort you would be a dream come true. Mila sobered up quickly and flashed him a bright smile, her determination had been reinvigorated and she was ready to skate again, this time her ambition was driven by the desire to skate with her friends…_

But that determination had decreased over the years, she still loved skating with her friends, but the need to win had lessen. She told herself, that it was just a part of growing up, learning they you can't always be the best; life eventually gets in the way of yours dreams. No matter how much Viktor patted her on the head, it would never be enough to motivated her to win…again.

This realization dulled her ambition from a glittering gold to a lackluster bronze.

 **Please read and review everybody.**


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